Helping Hands: Elijah's Promise

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerVolunteers at Elijah's Promise soup kitchen in New Brunswick peel and chop sweet potatoes for a large batch of risotto they were making as the lunchtime meal earlier this month.

FULFILLING A PROMISE

"The need for food is a symptom of poverty and many of the people who came to the soup kitchen had a range of other problems," said Lisanne Finston, Executive Director of Elijah’s Promise.

Operating under the idea that alleviating food insecurity requires more than just offering meals, the New Brunswick-based multi-services organization operates, among other services, a food kitchen, health screenings and job services.

"In many ways, the beginnings of Elijah’s Promise was realizing a need to connect people with services," Finston said. "Food is the first point of contact."

HOW IT BEGAN

"We were founded as an outgrowth of three congregations that had meal programs in the 1980s," she said. The three programs united to better serve the community.

"A community-needs assessment was conducted during the development of the organization that was to be Elijah’s Promise," Finston said. "From the outset, there was the knowledge that food was the point contact, but that there were a range of ways we could help people."

WHAT IT DOES

"As an organization, we’re always evolving," Finston said. "Ten years ago, we noticed that a lot of people who were eating at the kitchen were" diabetic, she said. That realization led to a change in the way they feed patrons. "Feeding people something is not always better than nothing."

Through partnerships with groups such as the Rutgers Cooperative Extension, the Soup Kitchen is able to serve healthful, locally sourced foods. Their Fresh is Best project provides food to residents of Hunterdon, Middlesex and Somerset counties living with HIV/AIDS.

In 1997, the Promise Jobs Culinary School, a full-time basic culinary education course, was added to the list of Elijah’s Promise programs. Accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education and by Workforce, the course prepares students to work in the food-service industry.

Through the Soup Kitchen, Elijah’s Promise provides two meals a day, Monday-Friday and one meal on Saturdays and Sundays.

Following the model of the One World Everybody Eats Foundation, Elijah’s Promise, in partnership with Who Is My Neighbor? Inc., launched A Better World Cafe in October 2009. The community-supported, pay-as-you-can restaurant is staffed by graduates of the Promises Jobs Culinary School.

Other services include a health clinic for Elijah’s Promise clients run by students from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, consultations provided by Chiropractic For Humanity and mental health screening by the UMDNJ — University Behavioral Healthcare PATH project.

WHAT'S NEXT

The organization’s next project, a community-supported bakery called Raisin Dough, is expected to open this month. Elijah’s Promise will sell subscriptions to community members who will, in turn, receive a number of baked goods each week.

HOW TO HELP

A majority of Elijah’s Promise’s costs are met through individual donations and money raised via the organization’s fundraising and business initiatives.

"We live on the support of individual donors and volunteers. Funds, friends and food," Finston said, pointing out Elijah’s Promise also benefits when people "support and patronize the activities we have to generate funds."